


Unbraided

by kallliope



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: F/M, Hair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-29 07:35:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8481058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kallliope/pseuds/kallliope
Summary: Kaz's fingers have cracked every lock in existence, but they come across a new obstacle: Inej's hair.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is set post-CK!

Kaz put down the pen on his desk and rolled his sore neck. Ever since Pekka Rollins scurried out of Ketterdam with his tail between his legs, the Dregs were busier than ever, conquering Dime Lion territory. He heard their raucous laughter even all the way up on the third floor; no doubt they’d be enjoying their newfound titles as kings and queens of the Barrel. 

He wanted no part in their celebrations. 

It wasn’t a new sensation, but this time it felt heavier. The Slat was emptier to him, despite all the new recruits that were popping up with the Dregs’ new reputation. A girl who could steal and forge any painting if commissioned. A boy who could shift through crowds and come back to Kaz with his hands glittering in gold trinkets. 

None of them were who he wanted to hear from. 

A strong gale of wind made the window glass shudder, and Kaz eyed it carefully before crossing the room to unlatch it. Even though the open window let in a few snow flurries, Kaz didn’t try to close it shut. Instead, he leaned against the windowsill, gloved hands crossed. 

He felt her presence before he saw her. Kaz looked up, and as expected, Inej stood silently on the rooftop. She slid down the tiles and snaked through the open space of the window, shaking snow off her shoulders.  

As he closed the window, he heard the small clicks of clasps opening as she unfastened her cape. And as Kaz turned towards her, ready to ask her the normal greeting (”What business?”), Inej’s fingers found the small hairband that held her braid together and pulled it loose. 

The words vanished on his lips as soon as her hair tumbled down behind her. Inej never wore her hair down; practicality always won over vanity in the Dregs. In fact, Kaz thought, she even had her hair pinned in some elaborate coif in the Menagerie. Seeing her like this was jarring to say the least. It was a curtain of velvet, a veil of night. With the snow, it almost looked like she sprinkled her hair with diamonds.

Was this her way of showing vulnerability? Was she doing this out of sympathy? 

_Was this her way of taking off gloves?_

She slid her hand through the strands of her hair, shaking out some of the loose snow that managed to settle in them. There was more, Kaz noticed. She would never be able to get all of it out without help. 

Suddenly, he found himself just two steps away from Inej with ungloved hands, one of them raised in midair towards her, a silent question. Inej looked at him and exhaled shakily before giving the tiniest of nods. 

It wasn’t skin, Kaz reminded himself, as his fingers slid into Inej’s hairstrands. This was different, something else entirely. No water rose in his lungs, no dead eyes stared back up at him. 

Inej gazed at him in utter silence as he quietly brushed the snow away. It was the only thing restraining Kaz from tangling his hands into her hair completely; she would jump away, nauseous, fear in her eyes, with the heavy floral smell of the Menagerie choking her breath. 

His fingers found the snow flurries and picked them off one by one, deftly and silently, efficient from experience with stronghold locks. But that was easy, that was touching hard metal. Inej’s hair was new terrain; it slid and danced, bunched and weaved through his searching hands. 

And he found he liked it. 

Inej drew away from him the moment the last snow flurry fell from Kaz’s fingertips and melted to a droplet on the floor. She went over to the bed and collapsed without invitation, back toward him. He hesitated only for a moment before joining her, and turned off the oil lamp.

Her silhouette shifted in the darkness restlessly until Kaz heard her breath slow to an even rhythm of sleep. Only then did he allow himself to reach out to his left and lightly run his fingers through her hair, which splayed out across the bed in soft curls. 

A thought darted through his mind, and he immediately pushed it back. It was madness, a feverish notion. But his hands betrayed him and began to reach even further to where some of Inej’s curls fell across her face. 

Carefully, he arranged the strands of her hair behind her ear. It was selfish of him to do this, to feel something he couldn’t yet have with Inej. But he was a thief, no matter how many of her Suli proverbs tried to paint him otherwise; this was what he did.

He retracted his hands as soon as his fingers started to sense the hair in front of her face thinning; he didn’t want to risk touching her face and waking her up with his retching. 

In the morning, she spared only a single look at him before she took a small comb out of her pocket, and handed it to him, smiling. 

Kaz combed the tangles out of her hair without guilt. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Kaz fondling Inej's hair is my weakness.
> 
> My tumblr: inejjghafas.tumblr.com


End file.
